1800. } 
Arion and two of the mariners having 
proyidentially efcaped the general wreck, 
begin to fearch for an adventurous youth 
whom they had feen approaching the 
Jand— 
Panting, with eyes averted from the day, _ 
Prone, helplefs, on the fhingly beach he 
lay— 
It is Bilewon' 
We are thus revived with the hope, that 
he may yet be reftored to the arms of the 
lovely Anna: but this hope is foon blafted; 
the bruifes which he had received when 
thrown on fhore by the breakers, put a 
f{peedy period to his exiftence. His*final 
{peech is truly affecting. 
The fentiments of the poem are com- 
monly adopted with propriety. The moft 
remarkable deviation from the language of 
nature, occurs in the Jaft words that are 
uttered by Palemon. After having ad- 
drefled his beloved friend in very affecting 
terms, he proceeds in the following man- 
ner: 
When thou fome tale of haplefs love fhalt hear, 
That fteals from pity’s eye the melting tear, 
Of two chafte hearts by mutual paffion join’d, 
To abfence, forrow, and defpair confign’d ;—~ 
Oh! then, to fwell the tides of focial woe, 
That heal th’ affliéted bofom they o’erflow, 
While memory diétates, thisfad fhipwreck tell, 
And what diftrefs thy wretched friend befel! 
&c. 
Thefe lines are beautiful; but their 
beauty is mifplaced. Is it natural for a 
man to utter fuch fentiments as thefe, 
when he is already tottering on the very 
brink of that awful gulph which no mortal 
ever repaffed ? In order to take a furvey of 
this kind, the mind muft be free from 
every painful fenfation, and entirely di- 
vefted of the influence of every boiiterous 
paffion. - 
The language of The Shipwreck, though 
not always carefully correct, poffefles con- 
fiderable merit. We are not unfrequently 
prefented with happy turns of expreffion, 
His verfification is, for the moft part, f{pi- 
rited and vigorous: and fome paffages 
may even boatt of 
The long majeftic march, and energy divine* 
which characterize the manly produétions 
of Dryden. 
Among the principal faults of the poem, 
may be reckoned the unceafing recurrence 
of the barbarous phrafeology of feamen. 
The nature of his fubjeé& rendered it ab- 
folutely neceffary to introduce a number of 
uncouth terms incident to navigation : but 
it will be difficult to affign a reafon why, 
* Pope. 
Falconer’s Shipwreck. Piccadilly. 
‘receive its name from them. 
T5 
in the ufe of them, he has been fo ex- 
tremely liberal. Such jargon is but ill- 
calculated for enhancing the value of a 
poem. It muft at the fame time be con- 
fefled, that in reducing it to the fmooth- 
nefs of verfe he has been wonderfully fuc- 
cefsful. 
In the management of his comparifons, 
he feldom difcovers anygreat degree of {kill. 
— They occur too frequently ; and it but 
rarely happens that the analogy is fteadily 
purfued. Comparifons are introduced for 
the fake of placing fome object in a more 
confpicuous point of view; and unlefs 
they an{wer this purpofe, they are only to 
be regarded as ulelefs appendages or falfe 
ornaments. Many of. Falconer’s fimilies 
neither tend to illuftrate, nor to embellith : 
they derive their origin from objects too 
contiguotis or too remote, and confequently 
fail to produce the defired effect. Yet it 
is but juft to obferve, that others are of a 
different defcription. The following com- 
parifon, which relates to Rodmond is, per- 
haps, the moft mafterly one the poem 
contains : 
Like fome ftrong watch-tower nodding o’er 
the deep, 
Whofe rocky bafe the foaming waters fweep, 
Untam’d he ftood. 
‘This has even fome pretenfions to fub- 
Iimity. 
In the poems of Falconer, it is not eafy 
to difcover any material veftiges of imita- 
tion. Paffages fometimes occur, which 
bear a pretty ftrong refemblance to others 
in Milton, Shakefpeare, Gray, and Pope: 
but it would betray a precipitancy of judg- 
ment to affirm, that in every inftance this 
is the effect of imitation. 
Davip Irvine. 
ES 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR; : 
R. Pennant in his Account of Lon- 
t‘V Ji don, feems to think that the name 
Piccadiliy given to the great ftreet extend-' 
ing weftward from the top of the Hay- 
market, originated from the houfe where 
Piccadilly capes or turn-overs were fold, 
about 200 years ago. It is however more 
probable, that the turn-overs were fo de. 
nominated from the houfe in which the 
were made, than that Piccadilly-hall fhould 
I have been 
informed, or fomewhere read, that this 
hall was, before the time mentioned, the 
refidence of a Portucuefe Ambaflador : it 
might therefore, in the language of Por- 
tugal, be denominated Picadillo - hall, 
fiom being fituated on an eminence at the 
upper 
